Thousands Flock to Moulvibazar’s ‘Bina Bir Bazar’: A Shopper’s Paradise

The student anti-discrimination movement has started a non-profit market activity in Moulvibazar. Entrepreneurs said that this marketing activity will continue until the price of daily commodities reaches a tolerable level.

On Tuesday (October 29) from dawn to dusk, shoppers were seen flocking to buy daily goods at Choumuhna Point in the city. The buyers said that the price of each product is 20 to 30 taka less than the general market.

Mifta Mia, a rickshaw puller, said that due to the floods, the prices of daily commodities in the market were abnormally high. The price of vegetables has increased from Tk 20 to Tk 40 per kg in the local market. But here I bought a lot of vegetables at low prices.

Anti-discrimination student representative of Moulvibazar, Zakaria Emon, said that consumers should not be deprived of fair prices, so this initiative has been taken for the benefit of consumers. This has reduced the price gap of products from the wholesale market to the consumer. We sell a total of 15 products. Various agricultural products including potato, brijal, cucumber, gourd, green chillies, vegetables are sold at cheap prices.

Here coriander leaves are sold at Tk 100 per kg, eggplant at Tk 60 per kg, radish at Tk 40 per kg. Additionally, the gourds are available for 30 taka each. Pumpkin is sold at Tk 30 per kg, Patal at Tk 40, Shrimp at Tk 40, Chilli at Tk 130 and Cucumber at Tk 30.

Some buyers said, this is a big initiative for the lower class. However, if fish, meat, milk were sold along with agricultural products, the poor people would have benefited more.

Setera Begum, a housewife from Gizapara district, said that no vegetable is available in the market below 50 rupees. A few years ago, the bag was filled for 300 taka, but now it is not even a thousand taka. The prices of all products have increased several times. There is no possibility of a price drop. We insist that the price is brought within the affordability of the people by regularly supervising the market.

Abdul Alim who came to the vegetable market said, ‘I live in the city. My father grows vegetables in the village. After so much labor and trouble, the price at which the father sells the vegetables, comes to the market and sometimes more than doubles the price. It is a complete failure of supervision. And this failure makes life difficult for low income people like us. Due to this exceptional initiative, some people are able to buy vegetables at a lower price of around 20 rupees per kg.

Samael Rahman, district student representative of Moulvibazar anti-discrimination student movement, said that they started this activity with 15 types of daily necessary vegetables. Around 500 buyers have had the opportunity to buy raw materials at fair prices since the morning.

Javed Rahman, Tanzia Shishir, Ashraf, Zakaria Emon and others from the students’ anti-discrimination movement were present at the time.

Omar Farooq Naeem/KSR